While John again takes them upward and out of the system, Andrew and Joe spend the time discussing the data from the planet. Once the system is behind them, the bridge crew reviews, and then discusses, the data obtained from their experience with the particle field.
Location:
Starship Terran
Gliese 581d
The next few days find the crew with little to do as the ship speeds on to its next destination. This time, John drops to sub-light speeds well clear of the system. They spend the next twenty hours recharging the ship’s many capacitors. Once fully charged, John executes a relatively short stint at high speed toward the target planet. Even at this extreme distance, Andrew and Joe gather enough data to get them talking excitedly about the planet’s potential.
Another short burst of speed takes the Terran close to the planet. As they enter orbit, and glean additional information, joy quickly turns into disappointment.
At three times the size of Earth, the planet has a rather unusual feature; one side of the planet perpetually faces its sun. Again, the Gamin systems report the heavier gravity, and thick atmosphere, as acceptable.
With yet another planet failing to be what the crew had hoped for, John once again pilots the Terran away.
Andrew and Joe glean even more knowledge about the Gamin systems. Though the planet’s symbol simply changes to habitable or not, they discover that the symbol itself has subtle variations.
Cindy examines the data on Andrew’s terminal, then looking at the disparaging planet, sits down in her chair. “This one is not worth our time to do a ground survey either, our next target is called HD 85512.”
Andrew looks at the star chart data before him. “You know, whoever plotted this course has sent us crisscrossing all over the place.”
Cindy replies in a consoling tone. “The folks back home wanted us to check on Earth’s nearest, and most promising neighbors first.”
Location:
Starship Terran
HD 85512b
The days crawl by as the Terran travels to the next planet selected by Earth’s scientists. The crew becomes quite restless as the promise of an exciting adventure is turning into a very dull trip. Lights flash throughout the ship each time another course or speed change occurs. An enterprising group sets up a basketball court in the main hangar area. Cindy debates stopping the games, but decides instead that the crew needs a distraction from what has become dreary duty.
John, once again, drops the ship down to sub-light speeds well away from the solar system. This allows the ship’s capacitors to recharge while Andrew and Joe examine the incoming data in detail.
The next day finds the bridge crew all staring on awe at another massive planet. It easily dwarfs, Gliese, the super-planet they last visited. Florescent green clouds swirl over the planet, greenish water is visible below. The planet’s gravity is forty percent more than Earth’s, so it is manageable. Once again, the Gamin systems report the planet as habitable.
Cindy stares at the image and asks, “What do you think?”
Andrew and Joe silently nod, while John simply shrugs his shoulders. When no one replies, Cindy leans back in her chair and ponders her options.
“Well, we won’t really know sitting here, will we?” Cindy states bluntly. She bites on her lower lip as she deliberates the best cause of action. After a few moments, she orders, “George, you and Olaf are to conduct the initial survey. John, take ‘em down.”
The deck crew starts to cheer as the three men enter the shuttle. Finally, a planet worthy of surveying. Even as the men prepare to depart, another trio makes their way toward the bridge to confront Cindy.
The two men flank a shorter woman, whose shoulder length red hair flows behind her as she hurriedly steps onto the bridge. “We should be going on the survey mission,” She states defiantly.
Cindy turns her head in curiosity more than annoyance. Surprised it took them this long to complain. “Emma, is it? I am Cindy, welcome to the bridge.”
“Yes, my name is Emma, at least you know we exist. Now, you do know what we do? Hmm.”
“Emma take a look outside, then at Joe’s terminal.” Cindy orders.
The two men that are with Emma stay very quiet as they make their way onto the bridge. Emma looks up at the monstrous planet, then at the consoles before her.
Joe beckons her closer and explains. “This symbol tells us that the planet is habitable, but that’s by Gamin standards, not ours.”
Emma puts her hands on her hips as she turns to Cindy.
Cindy cuts her off before she can say anything. “Emma, the planet may be dangerous. Why don’t you three stay here and watch for a while. If it’s safe, then you will go.”
Emma can see that Cindy is not going to budge from her position. She and the other two planetologists find seats against a side wall and wait impatiently.
As the shuttle exits the Terran, John hopes that this planet offers some promise. The planet is much larger than Earth, as are its clouds, and winds. He has great difficulty controlling the shuttle. Wind gusts far exceed anything he has ever experienced and toss them about. Finally, they are below the turbulent atmosphere, and skim across a massive green ocean. John looks down at the small looking waves. Dropping lower he discovers that they are not so small at all. Indeed, the swell is quite deceiving and could easily swallow Earth’s largest ocean going tanker.
“Everything is larger and bigger on this planet folks, the winds, the waves, everything.” John reports, stating the obvious.
George and Olaf have been spending their time holding onto the equipment that wants to break free from its ties, while trying to keep themselves upright.
Eventually, John spies a land mass ahead, and in short order parks the shuttle on a rocky outcropping amongst a sea of tall grasses.
George and Olaf seal up their suits, and then open the ramp. The shuttle fills with air that has a visible green hue to it. Olaf activates an atmospheric analyzer. It takes the unit a few minutes to process the air sample.
Beep… Beep… The unit resounds rather quickly.
Both men stare at the readings in horror.
George hollers into his intercom. “John get us off this planet, and step on it. The air is corrosive.”
While George shuts the ramp and purges the atmosphere from the shuttle’s interior, Olaf stares at his suit nervously. In the cockpit John had been settling in for the long haul, and is momentarily caught off guard. He falters for a moment, then leans forward and activates the launch sequence. As the shuttle takes off, he notices a green smear building up on the windows. Becoming more apprehensive, he pushes the craft upward at a break neck speed. Just as before, the winds gusts are so strong as to belie the shuttle’s dampeners, tossing equipment and crew about.
As the shuttle leaves the planet behind and enters space, John notices that the green smudges turn brown, and then flake off as they approach their ship.
“Terran, come in.” John says nervously.
Cindy is very surprised at the speedy communication. “Terran here, that was quick.”
“No time to explain, the planet’s atmosphere is corrosive. I want a HAZMAT crew ready to decon the shuttle ASAP.” John states frantically as he stares at more brown flakes peeling off his windows.
“Understood.” Cindy glances at the planetologists, sending them a curt ‘told you so’ expression before she arranges a decontamination crew.
The shuttle that enters the Terran does not look at all like the one that left. This one is covered in scaly grey patches which flake and fall off, landing on the deck where they sizzle. Inside the shuttle, Olaf and George have been very busy cleaning each other’s suits. Meanwhile, all of the equipment they took with them is heavily corroded.
John considers the wisdom of landing on the hangar deck, but feels he has little choice. All of their concerns are alleviated as the shuttle gets cleaned off. The Gamin materials, though becoming discolored, seem to have suffered no ill effects, includi
ng the deck. Earth made components have not fared so well. Everything metallic is reduced to junk in no time at all. With the risk of cross contamination being too high, they decide to eject all the corroded equipment.
George tethers himself to the ship and makes a number of perilous trips down the open ramp. He struggles with the navigational shields but is finally able to shove all of the contaminated objects through and into space.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Cindy is tapping her fingers on the chair’s armrest in annoyance. If all three of them had perished, the impact to the mission would have been incalculable. She taps a symbol on her chair.
“George, Olaf!” Cindy’s voice reverberates throughout the ship’s speakers, “I want everything in the hangar bay area free of anything that came up from the planet. I don’t care how long it takes, I don’t want a single microbe present.”
Olaf promptly replies, “We have dumped all of the equipment, but there are some dark smudges on the hangar deck.”
“Well, figure out a way to remove them,” Cindy demands.
George puzzles for a moment about how to satisfy Cindy’s orders, and then smiles as an easy test comes to mind. He and Olaf roll a number of steel drums over to the shuttle and wait to see if they become effected. Olaf offers to observe, which gives George a chance to head toward the bridge.
Arriving on the bridge George flips open his now clean visor, and reveals his wolfish grin. “Now that got the ol’ adrenalin going.”
Cindy tilts her head at him questioningly.
“Oh it’s all safe, the Gamin stuff is anyway, everything else we took down with us is toast.” George quickly responds.
Joe is quite perplexed and voices his concerns. “How come this panel says it’s habitable, when the atmosphere is corrosive?”
“The air is only corrosive to some metals. I didn’t think to breathe it though.” George shrugs his shoulders, as if he has let the others down by not trying it.
Cindy stands, then walks slowly to Joe’s terminal. “I am glad you didn’t sample the air. Anyway, that was the last planet on our ‘must do’ list. Now we can pick and choose how we see fit. Joe, Andrew, find us a good one. Please.”
Everyone is quite happy to leave the planet behind. The next few days see the crew of the Terran falling back into the same boring routine of waiting. Cindy encourages the crew to participate in the basketball games in the hangar area.
Deep Space
Location:
Starship Terran
Uncharted Territories
The days drag on as the Terran travels from system to system, spending scant time at each as they search for a planet worthy of closer examination. For an entire month the ship travels, ever outward in its quest.
“Cindy to the bridge, Cindy come in.” The voice sounds very excited.
She opens her eyes and puts a hand to her head as she sits up. Again, things always happen when I am sleeping! She fumbles next to her bed and activates the view screen by mistake.
Joe is staring back at her. “Cindy you. Uh, oh… um.” He looks away, blushing.
Cindy looks down and shakes her head, “Sheesh, it’s a nighty, will you relax.” She shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Anyway, what’s so important that you…” Her voice trails off as the view screen changes.
Joe’s voice comes through again, he is speaking very fast and is hard to understand. “I thought it quicker just to show you.”
Cindy stares, dumfounded at the massive planet that dominates her room’s wall screen. The blue waters, white clouds, and green landscape before her look just like home. The only discernable differences between this behemoth and Earth being the locations of the massive oceans and landmasses.
“On my way, assemble everyone.” Cindy states, becoming thrilled at the sight.
Arriving at the bridge, Cindy can see the crew is brimming with excitement.
Cindy sits down in her chair as she stares at the beautiful planet before them. “Okay, from the top. Where are we? And what do we know?”
John turns to her with pride. “We’re a little over six hundred light years from home. We may have nudged the speed over five a little bit here and there.” He glances at Joe.
“Well, we’re…” Joe begins as he looks at his notes.
Cindy interrupts Joe mid-sentence. “I don’t care what the folks back home call it. We shall rename this planet, assuming it’s as good as it looks anyway.”
Joe puts his notes down as he relays the planet’s promising specifications. “The planet is obviously huge, around twice the size of Earth, but with a gravity that’s only twenty percent heavier. The planet takes three hundred and twelve days to orbit its sun and has a twenty-seven hour day-night cycle. All in all, not bad at all. Oh yeah, it has roughly eighty percent water coverage and is, by our standards, mostly tropical with relatively small polar ice packs.”
Cindy is impressed. “You got all that from up here?”
Joe beams. “We’re slowly figuring all this stuff out.” He waves his hand over the alien console.
Cindy chews on her lower lip as she weighs the risks. “John, take the three planetologists with you in the cockpit. George, you and Olaf will do the initial tests. If it’s safe, let them out. I have a good feeling about this planet.”
John turns to her, a little confused. “There are only two seats in the cockpit area.”
Cindy grins, yeah. But there is also space for two Gamin suits. If those three want to go so badly, then they can ‘rough it’, can’t they?”
Everyone on the bridge grins. They all know who will be sitting and who will be relegated to the suit storage area.
Piloting the shuttle away from the Terran, John looks over at Emma and smiles. That was a safe bet that’s for sure. He informs her of his plans. “After we land and perform the initial analysis, your team will be free to do whatever tests you want. If you need to go to other locations on the planet, we can do that too.” John finishes with an accommodating smile.
For her part, Emma is quite awed by the experience of visiting a new world. “Sounds good,” is all that she can venture as she stares ahead.
Breaking through the clouds, John flies toward one of the equatorial land masses. He spends scant time in the atmosphere, as he wants the initial testing to be done quickly. The last planet they landed on is still vividly clear in his mind.
The minutes pass slowly on the bridge as everyone waits for news. Finally, the speakers crackle to life. “The planet is safe, a little hotter than we expected, very tropical. Emma wants to examine the small polar ice caps then visit the main landmass.” John’s report carries with it his exuberance.
Emma’s team steps out onto the alien planet. They breathe in the warm air and cannot help but notice the lush green colored vegetation that is all around them. John managed to find what looks to be the only rocky outcropping to land on. Walking to the nearby raised edge, the team gawks in awe at the spectacle before them. The trees have very thick trunks, and are quite tall by Earth’s standards, even in the heavier gravity. This planet does not feel that heavy to them, as it is only just a little more than the ship’s internal gravity. Pretty much everyone takes the fifteen percent extra for granted now.
‘Chirrruppp.’ They all freeze at the foreign sound.
George tries to locate the source while Emma’s team retreats into the shuttle. She peers out wide eyed, glancing left and right in quick jerky motions.
Movement from a nearby grove of trees catches their attention. ‘Chirrruppp.’ The sound is much closer, and carries with it an ominous tone.
Emma quietly speaks, “Oh no! We must leave this rocky outcropping immediately.”
John responds. “Sure, but why?”
Emma ventures a thin smile. “This odd colored rock may actually be a den or a nest, just look at it.”
The slightly lipped edges show no signs of water erosion; indeed the whole area no longer has a natural look about it at all. The ground also has a number of cur
ved depressions, as though something large has laid there.
A very loud ‘Chirrruppp.’ encourages them to load their equipment very quickly. They leave without catching even a fleeting glimpse of whatever was making all the racket.
Next, John lands the team on the northern ice pack, then the southern ice pack. They follow with landings on two more landmasses which are covered with lush vegetation. Eventually, John reports that the shuttle needs to have its energy cell recharged. They all reluctantly leave the amazing planet behind. The rear of the shuttle is jam-packed with soil and ice samples, foliage samples, and even a few large bright red berries.
Back onboard the Terran, the planetologists get to work putting their samples through a barrage of tests. Though signs of animal life were found, not a single creature was observed. The soil yields a number of surprises; it is virtually identical to Earth’s with only a few minor differences. The plant life also uses photosynthesis, just as Earth’s plants do. One of the soil samples contains a crawling bug, its many legs passing it off as a basic centipede.
Later that night Cindy cannot help but think this planet is just too good to be true. She almost expects to be awoken in the middle of the night by someone with a negative report. The next morning, she is in the mess hall where a number of people all talk excitedly about the planet they are orbiting.
“Medical team to the lab area, medical team to the lab.” A voice rings out through a speaker.
Cindy’s blood chills as she stands. Damn it, we need a quarantine procedure, but how? Everything has to come through the shuttle area. She sighs. We are the guinea pigs I suppose. Arriving at the planetologist’s laboratory she finds Henry kneeling over one of the men. It seems he has fallen to the ground.
Henry spots Cindy and waves her over. “Don’t worry, he is not going to explode or turn into some alien. He was bitten by something though, and is reacting to it as one does when allergic to a bee or wasp sting. I am treating him as such, and will monitor all of them carefully. We simply have no immunity to anything not of Earth.” He shrugs his shoulders in mild defeat.
Initiation Series: Series One Compilation (Terran Chronicles) Page 41
